Why Facebook May Pay $1B for Israeli Waze
Facebook is currently in advanced negotiations to buy the Israeli navigation company Waze. The total purchase price is said to be roughly $1 billion, significantly higher than the $200 million to $300 million Facebook is believed to have offered Waze only six months ago.
Half would be paid in cash, the other half in shares of Facebook.
The main sticking point at this stage of the negotiations is Waze management’s demand that the company remain in Israel. Facebook has reportedly agreed, however, to allow Waze to continue operating as an independent company under its own brand name; development operations would remain in Israel, while the business end of the company would be absorbed by Facebook.
In the past, when Facebook purchased Israeli companies Snaptu and Face.com, Facebook closed the companies’ local operations and moved their core development teams to Silicon Valley. Facebook has yet to open a development center in Israel.
For more, go to Haaretz
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.